Kinsley High School
Kinsley, Kansas
Teacher: Dr. Galen Boehme
As a Community
By Sara Stanley
12th grade
Through our community involvement we gain a better sense of responsibility, learn to share more selflessly, and gain deeper respect for others.
Community involvement helps us gain a better sense of responsibility because we are helping others and we have a job to maintain. Watching other people’s children while they are at work or watching someone’s animals while they are out of town will help us learn responsibility. By helping out neighbors, the local community knows whom to rely on. When a crisis occurs in the community, people will learn who is responsible enough to handle it. For example, our local community is having trouble with a non-local company wanting to buy the local hospital. By the community sticking together, we will not have to have a non-local hospital.
Maintaining a job will also show responsibility. Having a job shows we can stick with activities, until the end. Holding a job, for a year or more, shows that we will not let the community down. Paying bills and volunteering for jobs will show the most responsibility. Paying bills and volunteering shows that we can be responsible enough to handle papers, projects, and the money of a committee.
Sharing more selflessly shows the community that someone cares.
Helping families in need, helping other states, and talking with elderly people will show the community that we are not selfish. Helping people in need can show the community we can be trusted when crisis occurs. When a local neighborhood house catches on fire we can trust that our neighbors will be there to help with money, clothes, and food. When a house catches on fire in another town, the family can trust the people of the community to donate items.
Helping people in other states that are in crisis is a great way to show involvement with community. When the hurricane hit New Orleans, people jumped to help. People who were homeless automatically had a place to stay. People, who did not have food or clothes, received the items they needed. People all over America volunteered their time to gather items that were needed. When half of Oklahoma was on fire, firemen from other states near by, came to help. The people, who lost their homes, had people volunteering to help rebuild. Volunteering our time is the best way to show the community we can share selflessly.
Most Americans ask for deeper respect. Contributions that people give help our community out. Each and every person has a unique gift. When a community is in trouble, each person who contributes time, money, and need into the crisis, deserves respect. People should respect the gifts that other people have, even the person that is clear at the bottom of the chain. In our community we have an E-team. The E-team, helped bring back our theater. Most of the E-team members put money from their own pockets into the theater. The people who could not afford to put money into the project do not receive the respect he or she deserves. The people at the bottom might have great ideas for the theater, or might have a gift of his or her own to put in. People who contribute to the community usually stop contributing because these people do not receive respect.
Respect for our infrastructure is another way of showing deep respect from others. Respecting how a community was built and keeping it that way will keep a community going. In our community, we must work as a team to keep the businesses in our small town going. Letting a business outside of our community buy a store can bring the community down. If the business goes bankrupt we could never re-open what our community had before. Letting a non-local come in and buy the hospital, restaurants, and other corporations, will make the town die. People will start moving out of town to a bigger city or smaller town. To keep a business going, publicity is a key factor. Working at a nursing home, the employees must keep the residents happy and safe. Keeping the residents happy, the employees will receive respect from the family members. The nursing home is a home to the residents. The employees must keep the facility clean and safe. To have deeper respect for infrastructure, we as a community must stick together to keep what the founders of the community built.
Community involvement relies on the responsibility, sharing more selflessly, and receiving deeper respect.